Norwegian said it noticed a lack of significant financial support from the Swedish and Danish governments and was therefore left with no choice. Altogether, these new measures will affect 1,571 pilots and 3,134 cabin crew. 700 pilots and 1,300 cabin crew in Norway, France and Italy are not affected.

The outbreak of COVID-19 led to a grounding of all aircraft, while the costs for air crew remained. This was the main reason, why the airline fell even deeper into financial difficulties. Over the past months, even years, Norwegian struggled to gain enough revenue to be sustainable. Now, the carrier sees no other way than to file for bankruptcy in these four subsidiaries.

”The impact the Coronavirus has had on the airline industry is unprecedented. We have done everything we can to avoid making this last-resort decision and we have asked for access to government support in both Sweden and Denmark”, commented CEO of Norwegian, Jacob Schram.

“Our pilots and cabin crew are the core of our business and they have done a fantastic job for many years. It is heart-breaking that our Swedish and Danish pilot and cabin crew subsidiaries now are forced to file for bankruptcy, and I’m truly sorry for the consequences this will have for our colleagues. We are working around the clock to get through this crisis and to return as a stronger Norwegian with the goal of bringing as many colleagues back in the air as possible,” Schram added.

Norwegian had a rough last months. After the financially beleaguered company needed to ground its whole Boeing 737 MAX fleet after the software problems with the MCAS, the carrier needed to stop all transatlantic flights from Ireland.

After this, the Coronavirus broke out and led to whole aircraft fleets to be grounded. In mid-March, the airline group announced, that it would dismiss around 50% of its employees in order to save more costs.

Norwegian Air Shuttle was founded in 1993 and operated as low-cost carrier ever since. Today, the subsidiaries Norwegian Air Argentina, International, Norway, Shuttle, Sweden, UK and Long Haul are operating in the group. The fleet consists of 108 Boeing 737s and 37 Boeing 787 Dreamliner.